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Health Care and Care-Seeking in Mosul 1 Year After Defeat of ISIS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2021

Riyadh Lafta
Affiliation:
Department of Family and Community Medicine, Al Mustansiriya University, Baghdad, Iraq
Maha A. Al-Nuaimib
Affiliation:
Department of Family and Community Medicine, Al Mustansiriya University, Baghdad, Iraq
Laith R. Sultan
Affiliation:
Department of International Health, The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, 21205USA
Hazem Rihawa
Affiliation:
Department of International Health, The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, 21205USA
Gilbert Burnham*
Affiliation:
Department of International Health, The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, 21205USA
*
Corresponding author: Gilbert Burnham, Email: [email protected].

Abstract

Objective:

Our objective was to compare care-seeking patterns in Mosul, Iraq, in 2018, 1 y after Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) control, with findings from neighborhoods that had been sampled in 2017

Methods:

For this multi-stage randomized cluster household survey, we created one cluster in each of 20 neighborhoods randomly selected from the 40 neighborhoods in the 2016/17 survey; 12 in east Mosul, 8 in west Mosul. In each, 30 households were interviewed beginning at a randomly selected start house. Questions were derived from the 2016/2017 post-ISIS survey.

Results:

We interviewed the head of household or senior female in 600 households containing 3375 persons. One year after ISIS, some household demographic shifts had occurred. Diarrhea in children during the past 2 wk decreased from 50.1% to 7.5% (P < 0.001); however, cough/difficulty breathing increased from 15.5% to 33.6% (P < 0.01). Among adults, care-seeking for noncommunicable diseases increased from 22.3% to 43.5% (P < 0.001). Emotional and psychological complaints common in the previous survey were now nearly absent. Pregnancy complications diminished from 65.2% to 15.4% (P < 0.001).

Conclusions:

Communicable diseases predominated among children and noncommunicable diseases among adults. Access to health care substantially improved, although barriers remained. Satisfaction with services was mixed, with dissatisfaction expressed about testing, medicine access, and costs, but the work of health providers was rated highly.

Type
Original Research
Copyright
© Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2021

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